Chess in Tweets Weekly (4) TATA players on Twitter

Forget Trump! Wijk aan Zee will be the center of the chess world in January. The small town on the coast of the North Sea in the municipality of Beverwijk is always worth a visit, albeit it is often cold and windy in January.

The town looks different in the summer though! A few years ago I visited Wijk in the summer, to find out how this place looks like when people are not wearing hats, scarfs and handgloves.

Bergweide in Wijk aan Zee.

You can read tournament previews on several websites and many chess players will follow the games online in the next weeks. Many chess fans will also follow Twitter during the event, which will be played from January 13-29 2017. But who to follow during TataSteelChess 2017? Here is a comprehensive guide of the players with a Twitter account.

The organisation

First of all, you should add the official account @tatasteelchess to your watchlist. Do not forget the account of Tournament Director Jeroen van den Berg, @jvdbergchess. The official hashtag is #tatasteelchess, which is used in the tweets of the official account. Sounds good, makes sense.

TD Jeroen van den Berg

If you are looking for fine pictures and videos, add the accounts of @lennartootes and @alinalami. Seriously: is there a tournament in this world in which Lennart is not involved? He will take care of the videos in Wijk. Alina l’Ami is the official tournament photographer and she will not only put pictures on the website, but she also often shares pictures on Twitter.

Family business: Erwin and Alina l’Ami (TataSteel 2011)

Pictures and hopefully some behind-the-screens tweets can be excpected from chess commentator and reporter Anna Rudolf, who joined the media team in Wijk aan Zee this year. Follow @anna_chess to stay up-to-date. She already posted some nice stuff before the event started. Recommended!

The players on Twitter

Many players who play in WAZ have a Twitter account. @MagnusCarlsen of course, but really, it is not a very up-to-date Twitter account. Magnus or his social media team hardly tweet, and I personally do not like it that he did not tweet a “thank you” to his fans after the world championship in New York.

@SergeyKarjakin is active on Twitter, you can often find some pictures on his account. It is also recommended to add the account of his lovely wife Galiya, @galiyachess.

Another star with an account is @Wesley_So, but his latest tweet is from 11 February 2012…. @LevAronian, who calls himself ‘chess gangsta‘ in his Twitter profile is active and often shows pictures of his girlfriend Arianne Caoli. You should follow her account @caoili as well to get pictures of Levon. Dutch number one @anishgiri is often very active on Twitter, especially during world championships. We will see if he finds the time to tweet during the tournament. His wife Sopiko Guramishvili plays in the “Challengers” tournament and her account is @Sopiko20.

Anish Giri: pondering over his next move or his next tweet?

Do you know who @lachesisq is, a Dota and Hearthstone fan? You know what, find that out yourself. @harichess is easier to guess, @Eljanovis a giveaway, just like @Radek_Wojtaszek. Richard Rapport is on Twitter with the handle @rjrapport, “KingLoek” van Wely @loekvanwely is still on Twitter, but his latest tweet was published in October 2015. Abhidan Baskaran has the handle @abhidanchess. His latest tweet (12 January) :”Off to Wijk! To fulfill the new year resolution! Tata Steel Masters here I come!”

Regular guest in Wijk aan Zee: KingLoek

I didn’t find many Twitter accounts of the Challengers, but I will be happy to update this guide in case I missed somebody. I found Gawain Jones @GMGawain, Nils Grandelius @GMGrandelius, @benjamin_bok, @erwinlami, Eric Hansen @hansenchess, @aryan_tari and @Sopiko20.

If you have a player account that I missed, let me know! Send a tweet to @ChessClassic. Thanks!